Where The Wind Blows
by QueenofallSwans
Summary: SQW Day 7 Prompt: Trapped Trapped in a bathroom in the aftermath of a tornado Emma and Regina must work together to get out alive


Emma Swan lets out a groan of pure delight as she bites hungrily into her grilled cheese sandwich. The blonde glances around the small cafe with a soft smile. _This place is so adorable_ , she muses, taking a second bite of her sandwich. She had been on her way to New York and, feeling famished do to the long drive from Tallahassee, she had stopped in for something to eat. The name 'Granny's Diner" had amused her and was definitely a testament to the minute size of the town.

The blonde reaches out a pale hand, grasps the white cup of hot cocoa from the counter and lifts it up to take a sip. Suddenly the front door to the diner swings open with a *bang*, causing Emma to spill the mug's hot contents on her shirt and hands. She mumbles out a curse, standing swiftly from her booth. Looking disgustedly at her shirt and hands, covered in sticky cocoa, the blonde sighs. She glances over towards the door, searching for the rude patron who had opened it far too forcefully. She only gets a glimpse of brown hair before the hot liquid begins seeping through her shirt, causing the blonde to curse once more and head to the bathroom to clean up.

Once in the bathroom Emma stares at her shirt in the mirror with a grimace as she washes her hands. Growling, she peels the fabric from her body; leaving her standing half naked in front of the mirror. She glares at the shirt in her hands, wondering what to do with it when a loud roaring fills her ears. Scrunching her eyebrows together she reaches for the doorknob, forgetting she was still just in her jeans and bra. Right as she reaches the handle, the door flies open and a woman scurries in with a scream.

"What the hell?" The blonde questions angrily, holding her arm to her chest. "You almost took my fucking arm off lady!" The woman doesn't reply, except for her ear-piercing screams. Emma grabs the woman's shoulders; shaking her. "Dude, lady, calm down." She looks the woman up and down; from her shoulder length brunette hair to her ridiculously tall heels. She takes in the brunette's expression of pure terror and her eyebrows knit together.

"To… Tornado!" The woman manages to squeak out, spinning from Emma's grasp. The blondes jaw drops.

"What?!"

The brunette frantically flits around the tiny one stall bathroom, ignoring Emma's question. "Lady! There is nowhere else to go in here." She sticks her arm out and motions around the small room. "This is it."

"Did you not hear me?!" The woman shrieks again, this time though her cries are drowned out by a loud crash. Green eyes meet brown as both womens faces morph into expressions of horror.

"Oh god, what the fuck." Emma squeals out, moving to open the bathroom door.

"What do you think you're doing?!" The brunette screams, running up to the blonde and pushing her from the door.

"I have to see what that was!"

"A tornado! Are you deaf? It was headed this way that's why I ran in _here_! Why on earth would you go out _there_?!" The woman screams, motioning with her hands. Emma barely hears her, the raging winds from beyond the door can be clearly heard now. Pale skin turns paler and the blonde quickly runs to the farthest wall, the brunette right behind her.

"Okay, um…" The younger woman trails off, trying to remember what she had learned in school about tornadoes. "Alright, okay. We gotta make ourselves small, like, we have to crouch down." Demonstrating this, Emma crouches against the wall. She thinks for a moment before pivoting on her heels; facing towards it. The blonde looks back at the brunette who stands stock-still in the middle of the room and motions with her hands. "Hurry! You have to crouch down!" The woman seems to snap back to reality and she drops to the floor, facing the wall. "Cover your head with your hands!" Emma yells over the ear-splitting sound of crashing winds. Both women throw their arms over their heads and crouch down as much as they can.

The bathroom door is suddenly ripped from its hinges with a loud snap and the heavy door sails across the room, colliding forcefully with the stall. Both Emma and the brunette scream, desperately trying to sink down further on the ground. The metal walls groan loudly at the hard contact and begin to sway. Wind whips around the room, lifting blonde and brunette hair in a frenzy. A deafening pop is heard, followed by the sound of rushing water and Emma's stomach drops. _Oh god. We're gonna drown too._

The door, now laying haphazardly atop the broken stall, begins to shake and is suddenly lifted into the air. When Emma doesn't hear the door hit the ceiling she glances up and screams; quickly replacing her arms over her head. There are now a few big holes in the ceiling, causing debris to drop heavily onto the tile floor. She hears a scream from beside her and peeks over at the woman on her left. _Ah, so she noticed the ceiling too._ A thundering crash sounds behind them but neither women are willing to locate the sound.

The roaring winds gradually die down and Emma pops her head up and cautiously spins around, still crouching. Glancing to her left she notices the brunette doing the same. Their eyes meet briefly before their gazes move to asses the damage. Where the door had been is now a mess of rubble and Emma thinks she spies a few tables in the chaos. She squeezes her eyes shut momentarily; breathing deeply. When a gasp sounds from above her she looks up to see the other woman standing; slowly turning in circles. "We're trapped." She chokes out, turning to face the blonde.

Emma looks to the floor, feeling something cold seep into her jeans. "Yeah." She mumbles out. "And we're trapped with rising water." Both women stare at the ground in horror as the water from a busted pipe gushes steadily around them.

Shaking her head to clear it, Emma slowly strides towards the flow of water; scanning the area desperately for something to stop it. The brunette stays still behind her; eyes wide with shock. Only a few short moments pass before the blonde curses loudly, spinning towards the other woman. "I can't fix it!" She wails as she stomps to the opposite side of the room, water splashing waywardly from her heavy footsteps. "I don't know what to do!" Her forehead collides gently with the wall and her breathing deepens in an effort to stay calm.

A loud sigh sounds from behind her and she cranes her neck around. The older woman is now glaring down at her feet, mumbling under her breath. "What the hell are you doing?" Emma asks, turning around fully now.

"My shoes." The brunette murmurs, face still scowling at her feet.

"Excuse me?"

"My shoes. My _very expensive_ shoes, are getting ruined."

Emma's eyes widen comically and her jaw drops. "Are you seriously telling me that we are trapped in a tiny bathroom, with rising water, and you're worried about your fucking _shoes_?"

The woman glances at Emma's feet below the water and grimace. "You obviously needn't worry. I however paid a great deal for these shoes," She punctuates this by lifting a foot from the water. "So I am allowed to be upset." The blonde continues to gape at the brunette before shaking her head in defeat. Snapping her mouth shut she moves to face the other woman.

"I'm not even going to reply to that, lady. I'm just going to pretend you didn't say anything."

"Stop calling me lady."

"Well what do you want me to call you then? Crazy? Cause you seem pretty crazy to me _lady_."

The brunette fixes the blonde with a hard stare before squaring her shoulders, bringing herself to full height. "My _name_ is Regina. Also, it would do you well not to call me crazy, seeing as you're the one _topless_ here."

Emma quickly glances down at her bra and blushes. "I...uh... I spilled cocoa on my shirt…" She looks back up at Regina and her blush deepens at the older womans intense glare.

"Well, you sure are elegant dear." Regina chuckles, anger momentarily forgotten.

"Emma." The blonde states firmly, sheepishly meeting the brunette's eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"My name. It's Emma. If I can't call you lady then you can't call me dear."

"Oh." Regina breaks eye contact with the blonde, glancing down at her black slacks; which are now almost halfway underwater. "Well, Emma, it seems that this water is rising fairly quickly. Any ideas on how to, I don't know, _not_ drown?"

Emma follows the woman's eye-line and groans. "Not really. I mean, I can't fix the pipe and there's no other way out."

The brunette looks at her pants and grimaces, causing the blonde to bark out a laugh. "What on earth is so funny? Can't you see we are going to die in here?"

Fighting through her giggles, the younger woman replies, "You're thinking about your pants being ruined aren't you?"

Regina huffs; raising her chin up. "I most certainly am not."

"You see, I'm very good at spotting a lie. And you, your _highness_ , are totally lying." The blonde replies rolling her eyes and laughing.

Regina stays silent, only glaring at the woman before smirking; eyes lighting up mischievously. "Ah, I am glad to see that you know your status."

Emma lets out another laugh, causing the brunette to frown, before shaking her head. "Whatever, Regina. Anyways, we have bigger things to deal with at the moment." The blonde motions around them as a stream of shiny oil begins to flow through the water.

"Oh no." Regina groans, backing away from the black liquid. Emma follows suit until the pair end up pressed against the far left corner of the room.

"Well now what?" The blonde questions, glancing at the brunette.

Brown eyes lock on green as Regina shrugs her shoulders helplessly. "I don't know."

They both fix their gazes on the steadily increasing flow of oil when suddenly a loud crack echoes around them; causing both women to flinch and draw closer to each other.

"Uh… Regina… What was…" The end of the blonde's sentence dies on her tongue as a crash sounds overhead and something drops heavily into the water. "That."

With wide eyes Regina shakes her head, as lost on the matter as the blonde was. Abruptly, a flash of orange light begins to emanate from atop the oil spill and it's now Emma's turn to scream. A pale hand unconsciously grabs hold of a tan one. "Fuck, Regina…?"

"Oh god I don't know." The brunette tightens her hold on Emma's hand and meets her eyes, terror etched on her face. The blonde's own expression mirrors Regina's and they stare silently at each other.

Slowly, the fire begins to spread. Struck with inspiration, Emma releases Regina's hand and wades through the now thigh high water towards the broken stall. Tilting her head in confusion, the brunette follows behind the other women with questioning eyes.

"If we take this bit of the stall," The blonde motions towards a metal wall that is no longer attached to the rest of the structure, "And place it on the water, maybe we can get on it and I don't know, throw water at the fire and hope it dies down?"

Regina looks at Emma skeptically but follows her lead in placing the metal on the water, both making sure it floats before letting go. "Alright, you climb up first and I'll hold it steady." The blonde motions towards the other woman, grabbing hold of the wall's sides.

"And how on earth will _you_ get on?" The brunette questions, glaring at the floating object; which in her opinion looks anything but safe.

"Not sure yet." Emma chuckles, before once again urging Regina on to it. The older woman fixes the younger one with a stare before unsteadily climbing on top of the shaky object. Once she has herself situated she extends a hand out to the blonde, who grabs ahold of it. "Okay, I really don't think you can pull me up without this thing capsizing on us…"

"Are you seriously suggesting that we do a reverse 'Titanic'?"

"Uh, what?"

"Have you never seen it?" The brunette questions, incredulous.

"What? Of course I've seen it! What the hell does reverse mean though?"

"Jack stayed off the door and froze to death, if you stay off this wall you'll burn."

Emma's eyes widen as this sinks in. "Okay, got it. I'm definitely not doing that." The fire moves closer behind them and closing her eyes, Emma pulls on Regina's arm and swings her leg up onto the metal. The brunette grunts at the blonde's sudden weight and does her best to help pull the woman towards her. With a final groan from both of them, Emma succesfully has herself situated atop their makeshift vessel.

"Now what?" Regina questions, glancing at the blonde who is now practically on top of her lap. Her eyes trail down the exposed flesh of Emma's pale back, only now remembering the blonde's lack of clothing. She blushes, turning her face away.

Oblivious to the brunettes stares, Emma shrugs and glances towards the fire; which is now only two feet from where they sit. "I don't know. Throw water at it? It's fire right? Water puts fire out."

Sighing, Regina re-faces the woman beside her. "Well, if it's anything like a grease fire then no, I would not suggest throwing water on it."

"Why not?"

"Because, even the smallest amount of water can cause a giant fireball." The brunette states matter-of-factly, eyes now trained on the ever nearing fire.

"Well why the hell didn't you tell me that when I suggested it the first time?!" Emma nearly screams, whipping her head around to face the other woman. The blush quickly reappears on tan skin and Regina curses herself.

"I wasn't thinking. There was nothing else I could think to do." She shrugs and looks away.

Blonde eyebrows knit together over the appearance of the blush, which looked so out of place upon the stoic womans face. Feeling one of her own crawl up her neck, she turns away from Regina and mumbles an, "okay." under her breath.

A few minutes of tense silence pass filled with slowly nearing flames and ever rising water. Unable to take the tension any longer, Emma breaks the silence; carefully turning her body to completely face the brunette. "So…" Regina's eyes track the woman's body and she unconsiouly licks her lips. Brown eyes once again meet questioning green ones and she gulps; throat suddenly dry.

"So indeed." The woman replies once she has regained use of her voice.

"Any ideas?"

 _A few._ The thought enters Regina's mind so quickly she doesn't have enough time to shut it out before, once again, her cheeks begin to flush scarlet.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Emma whispers, tilting her head curiously.

"Doing what?" The brunette growls out the question, trying to make up for the color on her traitorous cheeks.

"Geez. No need to get hostile." The blonde chuckles humorlessly. Upon seeing Regina's expression, she quickly schools her features back to seriousness. "Uh… nevermind. Doesn't matter." Self conscious now, Emma begins to fiddle with the loose threads on the bottom of her jeans, leaning down enough to leave more of her chest exposed to the woman across from her. 

_This is ridiculous._ Regina thinks as her eyes begin to roam pale skin. _We're about to die. So why the hell am I checking this...stranger...out?_ She tears her eyes away, forcing herself to stare at the oncoming fire. She glances at the water flowing around them then, curious, glances towards the ceiling.

"Emma." She nudges the blonde's hand and points upwards.

"Hey, we're almost to the ceiling! We can climb out soon!" Her eyes flick over to the fire. "Well, if the fire doesn't reach us first."

Regina rolls her eyes. "Don't think like that, we'll make it."

"When did you become Ms Optimistic?"

The brunette shrugs in way of reply, looking away from the blonde once again.

"So I say we've got twenty minutes until that fire hits us and like, eighteen minutes until we reach the ceiling. Give or take. So…" Emma trails off and glances at Regina. "What do you wanna do till either one of those things happen?"

"I don't want to _do_ anything." The woman replies curtly, avoiding curious green eyes.

"Come onnn." Emma whines, sticking out her bottom lip. "Maybe we can take our minds off of our impending doom."

Regina swallows thickly, mind changing the meaning of the blonde's words. "Well, you are dramatic, I'll give you that much."

"Says the woman who came in here screaming like a banshee!" The blonde giggles.

"I did no such thing. I do not scream. I am a bit more refined than that." The brunette lifts her nose in the air and huffs.

"I was there Regina. I heard you." Continuing to laugh, Emma nudges the other woman, smiling widely.

At the sight of the blondes smile Regina relents, letting a small smile of her own grace her lips. Taking the smile as a victory, Emma whoops, causing the brunette to shake her head with a laugh. "Well now that you're in a better mood and we have…" She checks the ceiling and the fire once more. "ten-ish minutes before we _climb to safety."_ Another smile takes over her face at this and she raises an eyebrow at the brunette; who chuckles lightly. "Want to play a game while we wait?"

"If I must I suppose." She grins though, letting the blonde know she's not all that opposed to playing a game with her. "What do you propose?"

"How about 'Never Have I Ever'?"

"You can not be serious."

"You have any better ideas?"

"Tons." The brunette laughs. "But none that I can think of at the moment so, very well. You start." She holds up three fingers and the blonde does the same with a smirk.

"Never have I ever rode a horse."

Regina groans and puts on finger down. "Seriously? You have never ridden a horse before?"

"No. You have?"

"Of course. I ride all the time. I have my own horse."

Emma looks Regina up and down with a slight frown, causing the brunette's stomach to do somersaults. "You so don't look like someone who rides horses."

"What do I look like then?" She immediately regrets the questions and cringes slightly.

"I don't know, someone in charge? Of like, a lot of people?" She grins, meeting Regina's gaze. "Anyway it's your turn."

The brunette stares at the woman in front of her for a few seconds too long and clears her throat. "Never have I ever had anything pierced."

Emma's mouth falls open and she slams a finger down, grumbling.

"I don't see any piercings dear."

"Well you wouldn't."

Regina's breath stops as she thinks of all the places she can't see on the blonde's body that could be pierced. Her cheeks flush once again and she's seriously beginning to wonder what the hell is happening. She scans the younger womans body and is reminded of her lack of clothing. _No belly button ring…_

"Because I don't have it anymore."

"What? That's cheat…"

"No it isn't. You said had, not have." Emma smirks, watching the brunette's face intently. She had noticed the woman's face when she hadn't clarified her current lack of piercings and the expression there confused her. It was panic mixed with... Lust? _No, impossible._

"Well it's your turn then."

"Okay, never have I ever went streaking." She smirks, tilting her head at the currently flustered brunette in front of her.

"Why on earth would you think I've gone streaking?"

Emma shrugs. "I didn't know you rode horses, I'm just covering the basics."

Regina motions to her still upright finger. "This is staying here. I'm far too classy to do such a thing as streaking."

The blonde laughs loudly, tears rolling down her cheeks. A goofy grin splits across her face as she meets the brunette's gaze. Regina's breath hitches and she finds herself staring at Emma's lips.

"It's your turn." The blonde nudges the other woman's foot with her own.

"Never have I ever kissed a woman." The sentence was out of her mouth so quickly, Regina had no time to think about it. Now that it was out however, she clasped a hand over her mouth, eyes widening. "I… I mean…"

The gears in Emma's head turn as she processes this information, along with the looks the other woman had been giving her for the last hour or so. A smile splits her face once all the dots connect and she leans forward slightly, making sure the brunette could see her finger as she put one down slowly.

Brown eyes snap to green before roaming over pink lips. Emma smiles, leaning forward and closing the gap between the two. Regina moans low in her throat as Emma's mouth melds to hers.

All too quickly the blonde pulls away and Regina's heart sinks before she follows Emma's eye sight. They've reached the ceiling and can now climb through the holes to safety. Regina groans inwardly, not wanting to leave the other woman yet. Emma, however, is already standing and reaching a hand out to her. Sighing the brunette takes the proffered hand and pulls herself up to the roof alongside the blonde.

"So, once we get off this roof you wanna have dinner together?" Emma smiles at Regina.

Beaming, Regina replies, "That would be lovely Emma. You might want to put a shirt on though."

The blonde looks down and chuckles. "Well that's if you want to go _out_ to dinner."


End file.
